Everyone Deserves Tea (And Cookies)
by Sunnydalesis
Summary: Five times that Spike and Buffy shared tea together and one time they didn't. In honor of International Tea Day (Dec 15) and National Cookie Day (Dec 4). Some are missing scenes, others are episode rewrites. Enjoy!


Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

In honor of International Tea Day (December 15) and National Cookie Day (December 4). This idea kept me up all night, but thankfully, I managed to teach my muse some patience. Enjoy with tea and cookies!

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 **I**

Spike knew he had to get back to the mansion as soon as possible before someone realized he was missing. However, he could hear the shouting as he walked past the Slayer's house. Something from within, the tiny bit of William that still remained inside him, carried his feet to the Slayer's back door. His vampiric hearing of the heated argument between the Slayer and her mother caused him to wince. He waited until he saw the Slayer storm out of the house.

She was surprised to see him, but continued to storm on, with Spike following behind her. He invited Buffy for tea in an old haunt that few in Sunnydale knew about, making the excuse that he didn't want her to be alone, knowing what that felt like. In spite of her desire to snark, Spike's lament of loneliness resonated with Buffy. She accepted the invitation.

The two of them walked in silence for a while until they found the tea room. Sitting across from each other, Spike ordered a darjeeling tea for the both of them. Buffy took a sip after blowing on her tea for a bit. It tasted like grapefruit, tangy yet sweet. They snacked on cookies and scones in silence, just happy to not feel alone for once in their lives. After finishing their little meal, the two of them felt something change between them. A brief moment of kinship for her and a flicker of interest for him.

 **II**

Spike insisted on having tea with whatever liquor Joyce had. The sight of the usually devil-may-care vampire crying in her kitchen was a strange sight for Buffy as she walked into her house from the back door. She felt a connection forming in how he hated losing Drusilla, how he blamed Angel. In spite of every childish fantasy in her head about being together with Angel again, part of Buffy felt the need to share that same loss she felt with the bleach blonde vampire. When Angel appeared at Buffy's doorstep, Joyce took Spike out of the kitchen. Spike stuck his tongue out childishly at Angel. Buffy told Angel to look for Xander and Willow, insisting that she'd take care of Spike himself.

At the end of the night, the sink was filled with three teacups and saucers. Willow and Xander were rescued from the factory by Angel. An uneasiness was still over the two childhood friends as they found Cordelia and Oz. Spike felt that same uneasiness as he got into his Desoto, ready to leave Sunnydale. But something in him told him to stay instead.

The next day, he found Buffy crying alone in the cemetery, broken over trying to keep herself away from Angel again. He took her to a tea room and comforted her as she drank some tea sweetened with sugar and milk and ate some chocolate chip cookies. Months later, Angel and Faith were dumbfounded when they saw Spike and Buffy dancing together at the Sunnydale High School Senior Prom.

 **III**

It was late. Buffy was cleaning up Giles's place, collecting all the cookies leftover from Willow's apology baking session. She brewed up some tea for her Watcher and noticed Spike asleep in his chair. She didn't want to admit to her friends how much she enjoyed being under that spell. She couldn't remember the last time she felt so happy. She loved every single one of Spike's tender kisses and knew that there could've been more, given the chance. But it went against everything she knew. Slayers and loving vampires were always going to be unmixy things.

Pouring two cups of tea, Buffy took a sip, tasting the chamomile, and put some cookies on a small plate.

When Spike woke up, Buffy was gone from the apartment. He found himself untied from the chair and saw a tea placed on a saucer with a few cookies surrounding the cup. He saw a note next to the plate along with the skull ring that Buffy wore during their magically-induced engagement:

"Chain yourself in the bathtub tomorrow morning and don't tell anyone," Buffy wrote.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Spike placed the ring back on his finger, drank up the tea, and ate the cookies as quickly as he could without choking himself. He still felt the urge to make room to breathe as he ate, even though he didn't need to breathe anymore.

When Buffy went to Giles's house a week later to find out about the Gentlemen, she saw a teacup in a saucer and a single cookie with a note from Spike: "Thanks, luv."

 **IV**

Even though Buffy was intent on making sure she got the information she needed from Spike, a little saying from her mother rang in her head. "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." She asked Willow to create a certain potion. Once the potion was made, Buffy took it with her to Restfield Cemetery along with the cash she was planning to give to Spike. Stuffing the money and the potion in her pocket, Buffy approached Spike as she would a friend instead of her usual "punch first, ask questions later" method. She invited him for tea and cookies in a tea room that was friendly to demons.

As they shared some Earl Gray and biscuits, Buffy used a bit of misdirection to spike the tea with the truth potion Willow created. Spike's inner William came out as he told Buffy of his days of being a bloody awful poet, how he sought out Slayers, the respect he always had for them as fellow warriors. Buffy was astonished at how much honor the soulless vampire had.

He explained to Buffy that while most Slayers had a death wish, Buffy was different from all the other Slayers he encountered because her love for her family and friends is what keeps her fighting. Buffy's fears of death still lingered, but she couldn't help but notice how strange it was-that she felt more comfortable confiding in what she perceived to be her worst enemy than in Riley, whom she thought that she loved.

When Buffy and Spike returned to her house and Buffy got the bad news from her mother, Spike stayed the night. Riley left for Belize a few days later.

 **V**

Spike and Buffy found Tara brewing tea for everyone stuck inside the house in the hopes of calming everyone down. Willow baked cookies, not using any magic or anything else that would make the unrest in the house easier. The two witches knew that they were far from getting back to where they were, but working towards helping everyone out was a start.

As Spike and Buffy sat down in the kitchen, enjoying the tea and cookies, Buffy felt a sense of guilt pull at her stomach as she saw the black eye that she gave Spike a week ago. She knew that Spike wasn't really the problem. She blamed herself for having the worst case of survivor's guilt ever and took all of her anger and frustrations and emotional breakdowns out on him. She didn't want to admit it, but he was the closest thing to Heaven she ever had. Especially the way he tasted in her mouth.

Without exchanging any words, Spike and Buffy stayed inside with Dawn as everyone else finally started leaving. They invited Dawn, Tara, and Willow to sit with them to finish the rest of the cookies and tea. If Spike and Buffy started playing footsie under the table, the three other ladies didn't make an effort to point it out.

Spike and Buffy weren't exactly going to have the perfect relationship overnight. But sharing this moment with friends was at least a start.

 **VI**

Buffy sipped on some tea in a quiet cafe that was in a quieter area of Rome. One of the newly made Slayers was out in the clubs, dancing with that Immortal who called himself Captain Jack. Although Buffy was charmed by him, her heart wasn't touched. Instead of patrolling, Buffy went for a long walk every night, enjoying tea and cookies by herself. It was something she and Spike did together when he started staying in her basement. It was one of the few things that Buffy had left of him to remember by.

When Buffy took the long road back to her apartment, she was almost ran over by two men on a scooter. To her shock, it was Angel and Spike. The brooding vampire made the first move, walking towards Buffy. But instead, Buffy greeted Angel curtly and walked past him to Spike. She greeted the bleach blond vampire with a punch in the face.

"That's for not believing me when I said that I love you!"

Another punch.

"That's for coming back somehow and not telling me!"

Spike braced himself for another punch, but instead, he felt Buffy grab him by the lapels of his black leather duster and kiss him passionately.

"And that is to make you believe me when I say this." She took a deep breath and declared, "I. Love. You."

"I know," Spike said. "I'm sorry."

"You owe me a major explanation. But we can talk on our way home." She jumped on the scooter and motioned for Spike to get behind her. Reaching into her pocket, she grabbed a cookie that she took from the cafe she ate at.

"Oh, and this is for you, too," Buffy said, feeding the cookie to Spike.

Not knowing what was going on, Spike took a bite out of the cookie. He turned around and saw the dumbfounded expression on Angel's face. Buffy flashed a wicked smile at Angel and rode off with Spike back to her apartment.

Angel left for Los Angeles alone.

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